Community Feature
A Roadmap to Greater Impact: Reshaping Program Priorities and Organizational Practices
The Americana Foundation, powered by a staff of one and a deeply engaged board of trustees, supports the sustainable development of agriculture and community food systems, the protection of natural resources, and an inclusive narrative of early American art and history.
The Novi-based foundation, which has a Michigan and national focus, is on a path of self-reflection and is refining its internal and external practices to increase its impact.
This recalibration began a few years ago, amid the backdrop of the pandemic.
“There was the trauma associated with COVID and the murder of George Floyd. There was a very real racial and cultural reckoning going on in the country. Like many organizations, we began to think about the systems and structures that underlie the work, and asked: ‘Are we having the most impact we could possibly have?’ We took a pause and began to think hard about our role as a funder and a partner in the important work of our grantees,” Kathryn Buckner, president and CEO of the Americana Foundation said.
The foundation spent a year hosting listening sessions with its grantees and stakeholders. Buckner said the feedback underscored opportunities for refinements within the foundation’s program areas and other shifts to ensure that the foundation is optimizing its impact.
The process, guided by a facilitator, informed the development of the foundation’s Roadmap for Impact, which was adopted by its board in late 2023.
The roadmap outlined key areas for the foundation to focus on to increase its impact, and during the process Americana articulated a set of values that reflects the organization today and its aspirations for the future, provides context for the organization’s program areas and priorities, and guides the board’s thinking and work.
To ensure Americana’s website communicates the organization’s priorities today and its hopes for the future, in 2024, the foundation’s board published an equity statement to explicitly share its commitment to fairness, inclusion, and a community-centered approach. The board is committed “to regularly assessing its practices, policies, and partnerships to advance equity.”
Kathryn Buckner
CEO
Americana Foundation
“In our rearticulated program areas, we give examples of communities that we're particularly interested in supporting – underrepresented communities, specifically women, Indigenous People, people of color, but also individuals living in rural communities. We are interested in supporting communities that, for whatever reason, may not have the same opportunities that are available to others. For us that's what the concept of equity means,” Buckner said.
Americana wants to ensure potential programs and projects are being informed by community voices. Following grantee feedback, the foundation streamlined its grant application and added questions to the process to better understand how the applicant involved its community when shaping the project.
“The roadmap process helped us understand that our grants should support projects that have been co-created with the people they are meant to serve or benefit,” Buckner said.
As a result of stakeholder feedback, the foundation is embracing the idea of multi-year grants for certain projects, and Buckner holds an open calendar so that any current or potential grant partner can schedule a virtual conversation to discuss their work and the foundation’s funding interests.
Beyond shifts aimed at strengthening partnerships with current and potential grantees, the roadmap outlined opportunities for the foundation to strengthen its Board of Trustees, aligning board expertise with emerging areas of opportunity for Americana and welcoming diversity into the Board in terms of race, gender, and age. Since the roadmap was adopted, Americana has welcomed new trustees and put term limits in place to support bringing in new voices on a regular basis.
Buckner says as an organization they are continuously learning and refining.
“It has been a shift – we are still in the shift – in the way we think about and evaluate our impact in the world,” Buckner said. “For Americana, this is a continual process of evolution. We know that we need to continually grow and change alongside the communities we work to support.”